The Venber Chronicles
by fLoSsY
Summary: OK probably noone cares but i decided to ditch writing the sequel of the venber chronicles because frankly i don't think it's going anywhere. but please R/R the original, although it's long. it's about what happened to the venber all those years ago.


The Venber Chronicles ****

The Venber Chronicles

By fLoSsY
    
    A/N: I decided to expand a little- OK, a lot- on the Venber, the alien race K.A. Applegate introduced just for #25, The Extreme. There may be more than just a few scientific errors, so please feel free to correct me. This will probably my first and only long story (well, by my standards long) because I think I'd rather stick to monologues and poems. It took me awhile to write it so could you guys pleasee review… Anyway, without further ado, this is the newly completed Venber Chronicles in complete unabridged form!

Prologue- Revelation 

My name is Astrani. I am of the species known to you Andalites as the Venber. No- I can see your surprised faces. We are not extinct. But we very soon may as well be. As you can see, I am not in possession of what you consider a standard Venber body- but it is the standard normal body for us Venber, thanks to some neat genetic manipulation by the Arn (I will elaborate later). 
    
    I am communicating to you from a space craft- an Andalite model, a Dome ship I believe- which has been generously loaned to me by a prominent Andalite- war-prince Gerund-Isthill-Largrous. He is fully aware of this transmission to you, the Andalite people, that I am making via the civilian net. Indeed he encouraged me to tell you directly. But that is beside the point. I am here to seek you help, you Andalite people, the heroes of the universe. Your assistance is absolutely necessary to ensure the continual existence of my people. I understand that I should make the situation entirely clear. I guess I should answer the question probably on your minds- why are we not extinct? So I will start my story from the most logical point- the beginning.
    

Chapter 1- Birth 

Over 76000 years ago, a primitive life form crawled out of the slime on my home world, known to you as Venbea. The areas in which the life form developed were extremely cold, and took up approximately 78% of the planet's surface. These areas can be equated with the _flerash_ of you Andalites or Antarctica of Earth. The life form I speak of developed from a basic single celled organism to a complex structure that gradually attained awareness- sentience. This was after about 30000 years of evolution. To adapt to the harsh environment and he often blinding snowdrifts, the organism developed a sophisticated echolocation system. This, combined with the budding Venber intelligence, was effective enough to make the Venber the dominant life form of the icy planet. Years still went by and the Venber began to develop a culture. Tribal hunting groups were formed and definite family patterns were observed. Also, there have been distinctive signs of artwork found of the era. Small remnants of reyhavik (a stone-like ice material that last for thousands of years due to the optimal conditions of the planet) statuettes have been found dating back over 40000 years ago. By that time, primitive weapons had been used in hunting various animals native to the _flerash_ areas. It has been agreed that the Venber had a guttural means of communication by that time that roughly equated the level of Earth dolphins. 

About 35000 years ago, it has been recorded by means of crude depictions in reyhavik caverns of what undoubtedly were alien spacecraft. From historical documents I have accessed on the Dome ship I am currently communicating from, the spacecraft have been confirmed to be primitive ships matching models of the Five's technology. The Five- an incredibly cruel, ruthless species native to my galaxy. Now I will tell you the story of how the Venber, how my species, how we survived. Now for the story of our salvation from the Five.

Astrani- I will now relate what happened through the viewpointof the Arn. I have made a few adjustments in language, measurement units, and comparisons to make the story a little more comprehensible.

Chapter 2- Capture 

My name is Myquifygacon. I am an Arn. A ship belonging to the Five- the species whose mere mention makes my blood curdle- has captured me. I am young, by Arn standards. A mere child actually. My parents back home are worried sick probably. I've been gone for over a week. Amazing. I've spent a week aboard the most disgusting thing I've ever hope to see. 

Well, you're probably wondering how I got captured. I hardly know myself. One minute I was playing in one of the dense forests surrounding my _clerik_ when I suddenly saw a flash of red and the next thing I knew, I was aboard some foul smelling ship. A ship that practically steamed with the scent of heavy melted wax. Naturally, I wondered where the smell was coming from. And wondered why it was so strong. So I opened the odd crystalline door of my chamber with relative ease (the Five were extremely sloppy with young Arn; apparently I did not pose much a threat to them).

I wish I never went to see what I saw. But as it was, I did, and I stumbled in to a room labeled "Energy Obtainment Bay" in the intergalactic language of Galard. But what I saw in that room, that cursed little cut out of hell, was enough to haunt my dreams for months to come. The nightmares still bother me now, about 9 days after the ordeal, and have been ever since I saw them. _Them. _Or what previously might have constituted a them. At the point I entered the room, _they_ were merely _that._ That being a disgusting, oozing mess of gore and what looked like ice. The blue-red flesh of the monsters was dripping to the ground like melted ice-cream dripping to the floor. There were about 3 of them, 3 of the once 8-foot tall, great shaggy beings that I would learn to be Venber. Venber- sentient though primitive creatures having to go through living hell. To melt slowly, oh so slowly, until there was just an arm left, then a hand left, and then your eyeball would melt away before you could see what had happened to that hand. Can you imagine watching your once strong body wither away beneath you, languidly as though it didn't matter, and you still feeling your body coalesce in to a gluey gore while you try to scream but nothing comes out? All you feel is the heat, the terrible inexorable heat, slowly melt away all that is you. Was you. And for what? For what great cause must one melt away, destroy, annihilate, another _sentient_ creature? To power their computers and engines. The Five have to destroy the Venber merely to harvest the immense energy expelled in the process of the liquefaction of the creatures.

I have to save them. The Venber. I _have_ to. It isn't a matter of choice. It is a matter of Arnity, an act that _must_ be done even if I don't have an influence on the fate of the other poor creatures that are faced with the same doom. Absurd though isn't it? A young home sick Arn, barely 3 cycles old, take over a Five controlled ship, and then somehow crack the computer codes that program the melting of 3 Venber every hour. Ironic that the Venber power the tools of their doom. But it seems impossible. It _seems_ impossible. It may not be. I have to think of a plan, a fool- proof plan…

But first I must face the commander on board the ship. To find out why I have been taken away from my parents, from all that is familiar, from all that I have known. Why me? I wallow in self-pity. I am weak. But I have a reason. I am a child. But that does not make me exempt in The Five's eyes. They laugh at me when they see my blue-green tears drip down my face and smirk at me when they hear me sob when I am alone in my room at night. I will put up a strong façade for the captain of the ship though. I will not be weak.

**Chapter 3- Confrontation**

"Arn, come here," said a booming voice in the intergalactic language of Galard. 

I hurried to the bridge from my small chamber. "What do you want?" I asked as hostilely as an Arn, barely 3 cycles old, could.

The captain bristled considerably. "You will address me as Captain, Captain Adlax, or Sir. Never without a title." He was alone on the bridge. The rest of the Five must have been retiring in their quarters. He was a brutish fellow, obviously obsessed with his rank, but he towered dangerously over my slight form. But then again, all of the Five were big, hulking creatures. The Five stood about 8 feet tall, the same height as the poor Venber, but a good deal wider. They had slim legs that but a powerfully built upper torso. 5 muscular arms (which gave the Five their namesake) protruded at awkward angles around shoulder level and the slim legs tottered unsteadily. It seemed that the Five had the option of walking erect, as Adlax was at the moment, or supine with 2 hands acting as legs. But what made the Five look so vicious looking were their faces- jet-black, starkly contrasting with the tan fur of the rest of their body, and with large, menacing red eyeballs with white pupils. But the most prominent feature of their faces were their large, gaping mouths that resembled a cavernous orifice. 3 sets of white teeth glinted dangerously as I unconsciously gulped, still staring in to the cavern that was Adlax's mouth.  
"ARN!" Adlax roared in to my face. I literally felt my face fur bristle and quickly I came back to attention.

"Sorry Captain," I muttered apologetically. 

The Five favored me with a toothy grin. "That's better, little Arn," he said lowly. I could see that this guy had serious mood swings. "We didn't go all the way to the Arn world to kidnap a smart-alecky little kid. We need you for your genetic manipulation skills."

"But I'm a kid!" I protested lamely. "What would I know?"

"Don't play dumb with me kid." The captain was suddenly all menacing again. "I know that you Arn insert basic genetic manipulative skills as instinctual knowledge in to the Arn DNA. We chose a child because we figured that you would be easier to manage." I smirked at that. The captain ignored me and continued. "What I want you to do is to mass-produce the Venber so they can continue to power our space shuttles and super computers indefinitely. They have been an invaluable find- one of our initial forays in to space found itself on Venbea and accidentally melted a Venber… and the rest is history. But the energy expelled during the melting process is enormous! The amount of a small fusion bomb if harnessed correctly! With the Venber we Five…"

I let Adlax drone on about how wonderful it would be to melt those sentient creatures all day long, blah, blah, blah, outwardly bored. But inwardly I seethed. This creature, the Five, was he the paragon of Five nature? If so, it bode ill for any inferior species the Five encountered. I was sickened by the thought that Adlax actually expected me to manufacture the Venber just so they could be melted alive and used as a power supply for this ignorant, bull-headed people! Never, never, never would I stoop so low as to do that. I tuned back in to the conversation reluctantly.

"… and the reason why we need you to do this deed for us is that the Venber we have aboard are the last available resources. Since my ship is on such as important mission-" Adlax swelled considerably at this. "-we were given the last 185 Venber. However our supply is to run out in approximately 61 hours, unless we commence rationing 1 Venber per hour. That will make our ship 50% operational. But that is of no consequence. We aren't going anywhere soon. Look outside little Arn and you will see your home planet just a little below us." I peeked out a tiny window and was met with the heart- breakingly beautiful sight of my home! Home- my parents were down there wondering where their little Myquifygacon was. I felt tears pricking the corners of my eyes. I was so close, so close! I unwillingly pushed away thoughts of home. 

Adlax sneered at my response. "Foolish sentimental Arn. I don't see why your race is so emotional. It is such a waste of time! But back to the matter at hand- over the past 16 years we have grown reliant on Venber energy for our space engines. All other Five space activity have been in stasis ever since the Venber power supply has become depleted."

I had had time to take in what the captain had said. Only 185 Venber left! The last of their species! This made my mission only more important than it already was.

Adlax was now particularly bitter. "Now I know you Arn suffer from a little thing called morals. That I had anticipated so I have prepared for you a bargain you can not refuse."

"And what bargain would that be?" I asked insolently. If he merely asked for my life, I would gladly give it instead of allowing the Five to continue butchering the Venber and spread the plague that was the Five across the galaxy. I knew that they probably wouldn't want to kill me anyway, because they evidently lacked the resources necessary to make another kidnapping.

The captain threw his head back and laughed uproariously. Finally, after coughing himself out of the fit he condescendingly pronounced slowly, "I'm not fool enough just to put your life in jeopardy. I'm fully aware of young Arn tendencies to kill themselves over their principals. I have something of much larger value to you at stake." A sudden stab of fear went through me. Adlax saw this and laughed humorlessly. "If you do not co-operate… you will leave me no choice but to destroy your home planet."

I was struck dumb with fear. My planet! My home! What to do? Save my planet, or save the alien species, the Venber, that is probably too primitive to even feel gratitude? The choice seemed obvious. But that would be too inane, too cruel. I couldn't doom the Venber! I felt like I was missing some vital point though. There must be a way out, I thought furiously, there must! I turned my eyes to look at the still scoffing captain. Suddenly it hit me in a moment of utter clarity. It was a bluff! Adlax had said so himself, all other ships were in stasis and no where near my planet but on the Five planet. The ship I was in wasn't in close enough proximity to do major damage to my planet with the weapons at half power. I was practically bubbling over with happiness. But I allowed a look of uncertainty and fear flit across my face. I took things further in to consideration. I would like to save my planet even from some minor damage from the Five ship. In my moment of clarity I had realized something else. Producing Venber may in fact aid me in my cause. But every hour I delayed one more Venber would die. 

"I… I…" I stammered. "You wouldn't do that! Your councilmen know that my planet will retaliate with space mutants to attack your planet!" It was a purposefully stupid threat. My race is far better than to use another living thing as a weapon. I wore a guise of uneasiness.

Captain Adlax just smiled maliciously, his gleaming teeth reflecting dangerously in the strobe light. "Believe what you like. But I have a lab ready for you with all the necessary tools, I think, that we stole from your planet. It is your choice if you wish to use them." Adlax was coy, almost teasing. It was as though he was almost daring me to oppose him. He seemed way too cocky. A wave of real anxiety went through me. But I had assessed the situation correctly I think. I was sure enough to proceed with my plan… I hoped so anyway

"Oh," he added silkily. "If you haven't produced 10 experimental Venber within the next 48 hours, we will commence the destruction of your planet."

This was an odd situation. Although the Five's future space prosperity depended entirely on me, it was apparently the Five who had the upper hand. But I knew better. At least I was 98% sure that I knew better. And I had a plan to save the Venber, to disable the Five from extensive space travel for at least the next 50 years, and to get home alive all within 48 hours.

Chapter 4- Execution 

My plan was relatively simple. The Five had stolen a full genetic lab. They had, however, the wits to remove some of the _salari_, the manipulative tools that would make the docile Venber hostile and belligerent. Though the Five aboard the ship were stupid brutes, they could easily read the plainly labeled Arn equipment. But they hadn't removed all of the _salari._ They had only taken away what was considered important by Five standards. And apparently, intelligence was not. 

I was beginning to wander how in the universe did the Five develop space travel. I guess the brains of the Five stayed at home. Anyway, my people didn't delve in to space merely because we weren't interested in the mysteries of space. We were fascinated with life- and thus biology was our chief concern

I made my way to the lab, walking a little defeatedly with my head down, with two of the Five by my sides. The ship only had 6 Five aboard, a very lightly manned spacecraft. I knew that if I acted suspiciously, all would be lost. The creatures were all fairly dour and not obstructive, with the exception of course of the captain. The others didn't bother me much except to occasionally make sport of me, and even of that they were beginning to tire. It had been 2 hours since my confrontation with Adlax. Another 2 Venber were dead. I had promised myself to work all night if necessary to accomplish my goal and to save anymore of the doomed creatures from inconceivable pain and torture. 

So I went to the lab, accompanied with the guards. They left as soon as we reached the lab, no doubt eager to leave the Arn kid and begin a _bacush_ game with the rest of the Five. For once I was glad for my small stature and my young age. The less of a threat I seemed, the more off-guard the Five would be to my attack.

One of the Five had considerately prepared a Venber sample for me- a congealed lump of blue-red flesh that must have been acquired well in to the melting process. I wondered who had done it- when I had visited the room there were no Five anywhere the place. I guessed that it was probably Adlax who had done it- he seemed to be the sadistic type and probably enjoyed watching the torture. I didn't know very much about the other Five. They were generally uncommunicative unless they were mocking me while I was reminiscing about home. But I was no longer homesick. I pushed thoughts of home out of my mind to focus on the mission at hand.

I drew a sample of DNA from the glob of Venber and gingerly put the strand under a microscope on the _salari_ table. The Five were right- I did have basic genetic skills. Cloning and altering DNA samples were perhaps the most basic of the skills. But that didn't mean I was experienced. I was careful to watch my actions carefully. A slight jerk and the specimen may turn out deformed or suffer from severe brain tumors.

Under the powerful microscope, I saw the Venber DNA. Marvelously unique, I read the DNA like one would read a book, and I saw that they lived in a naturally cold environment and that they used echolocation. Echolocation! I couldn't think of any other sentient creatures that used that vision system.

I assessed my materials to the right. The lab obtained was rather outdated and many of its large clunky computers were fairly obsolete. But the tools were adequate for the task I had in mind. I looked for the correct nucleic acids that would add intelligence in a Venber. I decided that an advance of 2000 years in brainpower would be sufficient. Judging by the DNA sample, I would need a few more cytosine and guanine particles in chromosome 47. I studied the Venber sample more closely to be sure that I had the correct chromosome. I didn't want to accidentally create 150 more steroid-bound Venber- I needed intelligence, not muscle power, although the Five had ensured that severe aggressiveness was kept out of the DNA. I carefully made several incisions in to the strand of DNA belonging to chromosome 47. I directed the computer to insert a serum that would keep the additional cytosine and guanine in place. Then I punched in the edited code I had decided on. If I had added the additional nucleic acids incorrectly, I might have made the Venber revert 2000 years rather than advance that much. But I wasn't too worried. I had gone over my calculations and assessed every possible eventuality over 50 times. I glanced at a clock- I had been working in the lab for little over 9 hours. My stomach growled mercilessly and my eyes began to droop dangerously low. It seemed that only after acknowledging what time it was did the effects take place. I needed sleep badly. The one and a half weeks I had spent on the ship had made me a veritable insomniac. I was always either thinking of home, thinking of the Venber, thinking how in the universe was a kid supposed to take over a ship even only half operational, or worrying about a failure that was out of the question. When, or if, I ever got back to my planet, I would most likely be able to hold the record for surviving with the least sleep.

I shook off the sleepiness and completed the brand new and improved Venber DNA. I placed the altered sample in to the cultivation chamber and allowed genetic variation of 23%- that was not enough to destroy my handiwork but enough to allow superficial physical and sexual differences. The cultivation process took approximately 12 hours- there was no way I could speed it up. I decided to create 12 prototype Venber just in case I made an error. I could not afford to create 150 genetically inadequate Venber- the supplies in the lab were limited to say the least, and I needed as many fully operational Venber as I could get. Satisfied at last with my work, I made my weary way back to my dingy little chamber. No Five were patrolling the hallway, but I saw a shadowy form turn at the corner in to the galley. I was too tired to sate my nagging hunger, despite the fact that the kitchen was so close. I was too drowsy to noticed the message tucked under my door made in the Five's messy Galard scrawl.

Chapter 5- Results 

I woke up to a smell. A strong smell. I sniffed the air carefully and almost gagged. It smelt like… burning _hrekish. _I wondered at the smell. Why would _hrekish_ be burning in my _clerik_? I clutched around blindly for my familiar doll of a _flikara_- a ceremonial toy that was bestowed on male Arns when they reached a particular age, and then a few cycles later ceremonially taken away. It was a sign of gaining maturity; in Arn culture, dolls were symbols for the first attempts at creating copies of real creatures, and thus representative of taking the first steps to the maturity the Arn had now acquired. The _flikara_ in particular was a creature of great finesse and grace, an animal that the Arn highly respected. I sighed carelessly when I could not find it and opened my eyes slowly. Realization hit me like a hammer. I was nowhere near my comfortable _clerik_. I had no doll to clutch at pitifully. I had been aboard this ship for what has seemed an eternity yet this eternity was not long enough for me to fully accept my situation. I was not even near becoming a fully mature Arn yet I was embarking on perhaps the most important mission any Arn has ever embarked upon. I should have felt proud- at least a little self-satisfied. But the burden of a species felt heavier than it ever did before. A lost child on a Five ship trying to save an alien species from extinction while simultaneously attempting to prevent any harm being done to his home planet. I sighed wearily. I was more mature than most Arn my age- I had always been a little more ambitious and serious than my playmates. But still… why had _I_ been taken? Why not some older, wiser Arn? And then it could be his problem, not mine. Then I would still be at home; I would be playing blissfully unawares of the great amoral transgressions that were being committed so close to my home. These were selfish thoughts, I realized and tried to push away the mounting self-pity before it could overcome me. Don't waste your time like that, I reprimanded myself. You have to quit wasting time thinking about what deep _tishkad_ you're in or else there'll be no more Venber left to save. I made my way to the lab. The reek of melted flesh intensified as I neared the room. I opened the door hesitantly, unsure of what I was about to see, and then… 

I was met with a terrible sight. Horrible, disgusting, grotesque, it was all these things and more. The scene was even worse than the "Energy Obtainment Room." The mess very well flooded the room. I felt like collapsing on the spot, despite the sea of blue-red wax. Tears began running down my face, carving rivulets in to my otherwise rough, stone-like face. 

I knew what had caused this tragedy. The cultivation chamber- of course. Once the Venber were ready, I had not prepared for them a storage freezer. The chamber's life-giving heat had ironically taken away the creatures' existence as soon as the cold-reliant faculties of the Venber kicked in. My blue-green tears mingled with the scarlet- cobalt of the still undulating remains of the Venber. I had created them only to die. And they were to be intelligent too. Oh- the guilt I felt at that very moment was even more intense than when I had been caught cheating on a DNA coding test. It was infinitely worse- I just stood there crying and crying, wondering why I had ever thought that I could save them when I was merely leading them to their own destruction. I was as bad as the Five- they were interested in mass-producing Venber for their own interests- to them, the Venber were just immensely powerful batteries, not aware, sensitive creatures. What was the difference with me? Oh, what could be worse than being built artificially only to be destroyed?

Irrationally, ruthlessly, as I stood amid the knee-length goo, I wondered how the Five managed to clean up such a mess. I thought these Venber, my own children in an odd sense, as a mess! I was horrified at the thought. I really was not better than the Five. Oh if only, if only… if only I had…

Things I could have done, things I _should_ have done but had been too stupid to do, ran through my head like sand through an hour-glass. How could I be so stupid? Of course- it was such a large thing to overlook- I _knew_ that the Venber could not exist in a warm environment. Their melting was evidence enough. Oh, but I did not realize, I had not realized, until now, only now, when I saw these pitiful creatures, my victims, at my feet. Innocence never tested, naivete never to be corrupted. That was an odd thought, I said to myself… luckily, it seemed that the Five were adapted to the smell of melted Venber (I don't know how that's possible) and didn't investigate the lab. 

An hour later, I had poured the now liquid forms of the 12 Venber in to a Five waste disposal system. I gave them a solemn memorial as I watched the forms of what would have been a brilliant new type of Venber drift slowly away to a distant planet, or perhaps be drawn to the local sun to be further disintegrated by a heat that had always meant destruction to them. 

I never felt more alone than I did at that moment. I heard some sounds of conversation between the Five as they saw the mysterious lumps slowly drawing away from the ship. Yet none of them approached me to ask me about it- not even Adlax. None of the Five at all went near me unless they were acting as escorts- I wondered why they provided guards at all. It wasn't though I could escape anywhere, and the Five's ship had no smaller pods that I could even hope to pilot on board. My mind drifted back to the tragedy of the Venber, I could not work at all anymore on the Venber. It was out of the question. I could not risk another mass murder of hopelessly innocent creatures. I just couldn't. 

It had been little over 23 hours since Adlax delivered his ultimatum. I now felt strangely lightened, an invisible burden having been lifted, although the situation had not changed for the better. Rather, it had worsened to a terrible extent. Things had turned out so much worst than I had assumed they could. I decided to return to my room and attempt to relax. 

I lay down on my hardened excuse for a bed and slowly started to doze off.

I was in an impossibly white, stretching arena, where it seemed that I was the only inhabitant. Suddenly, I saw a Venber appear out of nowhere and reach out lamely for me, croaking in a guttural Galard, "You save us… not killa! Not killa! Not killa! Save us, Myquifygacon!"

The creature stumbled over my name but continued to call out. "You save us… not killa! Not killa! Not killa! Save us, Myquifygacon! Not killa! Not killa! Save us, Myquifygacon!"

I felt myself cry out. "You don't understand! I'm not your savior! I'm just a kid! I can't do anything!" Over and over again I cried this while the misshapen Venber yelled out his respective mantra. 

"Save us!" his dissipating form roared.

"I can't! I can't! You don't understand!" 

And oh, I saw a pitiful sight. The Venber, the quickly congealing lump began to cry, to sob, and to weep in violent convulsions. You wouldn't have been able to tell if you had been watching it, but somehow the sight somehow reached a part of my soul. I heard his sobs, heard his cries, and understood. He was not crying for himself, but his people. Before I realized what was happening, I felt tears begin course down my cheeks in now familiar rivulets. The Venber's sobs gradually quieted until there was almost silence in the white void. Then I saw them. Appearing almost out of nowhere as though they were ghostly apparitions, I saw them. The rest of them. The remaining 160 some Venber, no longer in the icy hibernation that held them, appeared behind their apparent leader. These Venber were not liquefied, but rather were standing their full magnificent 8 feet. And with one accord, they began to sing. With the Venbers' frog-like and hoarse voices, the wavering melody did not resemble music much. But the song reached me. To my hearts, to my soul, I did not only hear the song, I listened to it, and suddenly I was hopeful and hopeless, knowing yet wishing, wanting to live yet dying. I was Venber. I was one of them. I heard my Arn soprano voice stark against the Venber's baritone but to my spirit the voices were one. Oh, and only then did I completely understand. The now seemingly ethereal choir stopped singing abruptly. They gave me a lingering look, pleading with their bleeding eyes. And then they disappeared. All but for the 5 foot lump of flesh, blood, and whatever else constitutes a Venber. 
    
    "You must help," he said. He did not have a mouth, yet his words effortlessly flowed to me, through me. His words no longer sounded harsh and grating. No longer was I inwardly disgusted by him. And suddenly I saw him as a beautiful creature, as deserving to live as any other creature, more so since the creature humbled himself under an ignominious façade. I understood now what I had to do. I understood my duty to the Venber, to all that is right and moral. And this time, I would not fail.
    

Chapter 6- Second Chance 

As I hurried towards the lab, I checked my watch quickly. There was only 15 more hours before Adlax would launch his small scale but potentially dangerous attack. I had to satisfy him at least temporarily to protect my planet, and then I could take him and the other Five out with my newly created Venber. That only gave me less than 3 hours to prepare another Venber sample with the appropriate alterations- the one I had worked on previously had been destroyed in the Venber meltdown. And I would also need additional time afterwards to prep the Venber on what to do. To make the creatures understand Galard, I decided to experiment with an old fashioned method of teaching- using the sub-conscience of the Venber to instill the language in to the creatures' heads. I went to the speaker system that fed directly in to the cultivation chamber. Yes, it was undamaged in the Venber liquefaction. KNOCK KNOCK

I jumped a little. "Who is it?" I called hesitantly.
    
    "Open up. This is the commander speaking." It was Adlax. I could identify that pompous voice anywhere. 

I quickly reasserted myself, took a random sample, and made as if I was about to place it in to the cultivation chamber.

"The door is open! Just come right in, Captain Adlax!"

Adlax quickly strode in to the lab. "You, Arn. I must see your progress. Have you created any Venber yet?"

"No," I lied. "I have, however, created this sample. I was just about to place it in to the chamber."

"Ahh, very good, very good." Adlax was muttering to himself in the Five's language. "Well, it seems that you have only a few more hours to work, because, as I understand it, it takes about 12 hours to create them?"

"Yes." Adlax was acting too weird. He wasn't so cocky anymore. He was almost… polite in his anxiety.

"Well, keep up the good work, Arn. But I am afraid you will need to hurry up. Not that I like to hurry you, I understand that you would want to make the best work you can…."

I hesitated. I saw an opening that could give me the upper hand in the case I actually saved the Venber. "Yes, I would prefer that you would give me the leisure to work as long as I can before the 48 hour deadline. But, if you please, could you grant me access to the _salari_ that would make the Venber more aggressive?"

"Are you insane?!" A little bit of the Five's normal malignant nature returned in that moment.

"No, no," I said quickly. "I need it to boost the Venber energy emissions when you melt them. See, from what I have studied in the Venber sample, I understand that…"

Adlax's insane-look in his eyes faded just a bit. "Yes, OK, I get the idea," he snapped. He carefully appraised me with all his eyes. I gave him my most innocent, young Arn look that would always charm the mothers of my friends. "Alright," he said reluctantly. "But only because I'm desperate. We are running seriously low on Venber; the rationing idea had not made accommodations for some… unforeseen circumstances. Heck, even the lock mechanisms on the ship have shot to… Anyway, if I get even a whiff of the idea that you're about to attack us… you're going to find out why we Five are considered the scourges of the galaxy, even though all we do is pillage. I'll dump my bombs on to your planet without so much as a moment's thought, you get that boy!"  
I nodded vigorously with a solemn look. Inside I was brimming with delight. What with the Venber combined with intelligence _and _strength, I'd be able to take this ship over easy! 

"Ok, get to work then. I'll send one of the Five in with the goods that you require. Remember, get done soon or else…" Adlax paused, eyes watching my expression with glee. I was carefully frightened. "Or else little Arny say bye bye to Arnania, or whatever you call your excuse for a planet."

I hustled accordingly as Adlax made a noisy departure. I replaced the sample I had still in my hand in its spot. I had saved a tiny slab of melted Venber flesh from the tragedy I had incurred. I felt for the container and carefully placed the sample on the Petri dish. I made similar alterations as I had before. That only took me about 30 minutes since I had already done it before. I was fairly sure that my calculations were accurate- it was just that I severely miscalculated in my needs for after the Venber's creation. This time I would be smarter. I had to eradicate the Venbers' need for the cold to survive. That would make them immune to melting. Oh, but some small part of my conscience made me pause. You're destroying what makes them Venber! it cried. Don't do it! Another, more rational part, at least I hoped it was more rational, argued. You have to. You have to do it or else they'll die. The Venber you're creating, they're going to be the last of their species! 

My hand slowly went to the appropriate nucleic acids. "I'm sorry," I whispered to the Venber I was about to create and perhaps doom. 

An hour later, I was done with my calculations and the appropriate alterations were made. I now had intelligent, heat-immune Venber. Now I needed brute force. Before, I might have just tried to pull the thing off with brains but I was getting desperate. My first failure had wasted much time- the aftermath had left me reluctant to work for a couple of hours. Time would assure the victory of the mind- but brute force always worked in the short run. I waited impatiently for the Five delivery of what would be belligerence. I had already installed the nucleic acids that would increase adrenal and steroid release, carefully balanced with the natural stabilizers of the Venber. However, to cause the glands not to overload, I had to use the _salari_ that the Five had taken away- the sealing agent that made the glands larger and have more endurance.

I had begun to pace and think over my plan, repeatedly looking at my watch. Hurry up you stupid Five, I thought. Hurry, or else you won't have your precious Venber on time.

As if in response to my threat, I heard the tentative knock of a Five on the door. "Come in," I called somewhat eagerly. Control your zeal; don't look too happy, I instructed myself. 

"Here is your _salari_ you requested, Arn." The Five that came in was one who I was not familiar with. She- I was sure it was a she, though I did not exactly know what the distinguishing features for a Five were- seemed gentler than the other Five on the ship. The Five blinked at my examination and I hastily brought my eyes to the _salari._

"Thank you so much," I said. "You may, uh, go now." Even if this Five seemed nicer than the others, I could not have her watch in on my alterations. Although I knew the Five were for the most part stupid brutes, I had the feeling that this Five was more intelligent and may have basic enough knowledge to guess what I was about to do.

The Five didn't budge and just looked unashamedly at the Venber sample I was preparing. "I know what you're going to do," she said quietly. I must have looked shocked because she smiled before continuing. "The Venber don't increase emissions through additional aggressiveness. It isn't logical, especially since the emissions are linked directly to the dermatological arrangement of the Venber flesh, not the hormone release."

Now I was seriously afraid. This Five knew! How could she know so much about the Venber? How could she analyze the DNA so accurately? My eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Then why are you giving me the sealing agent? Who are you anyway? I've never seen you aboard the ship before. How do you know what I'm doing?"

The Five just smiled her quiet smile again. "My name is Stramelle. I am Adlax's daughter."

I almost fainted at the revelation. "You're… who? You're… you can't be…"

She twisted the Five's hideous features in to an almost pretty grin. "Yes. I was drafted for this mission because I am the leading geneticist on the Five world. I was supposed to create the Venber in the case that the Venber world had had its resources dried up." In my eyes she must have seen the question I was so eager to ask.

"Why?" she asked almost sadly. "Why would I disappoint my father, disappoint my family back home, and not create the Venber when asked? I don't know. I just…"

I waited quietly, waiting so anxiously for the answer. 

"I just couldn't." The Five's voice cracked at the word _couldn't_. "I was too weak…. I couldn't stand the pain I saw the Venber go through." 

"Have you seen what the Venber go through? Have you seen the living hell they're forced through just because they had the luck to have an incredibly high energy release when melted?" Stramelle suddenly cried out with passion. "It wasn't right. It just wasn't right. Imagine, I was relied on, chosen for this mission, for my supposed genius. But it turns out that I'm just a sentimental fool." Her bitterness surprised me, as did her emotions. I never thought the Five as an emotional species, and much less as geniuses. 

"You know very much for a Five," I said. Immediately after I said it, I felt ashamed. I didn't mean to sound so derogatory of the Five's species. Normally, if I was with Adlax I wouldn't have given a _sadsha_ as to how he might react, but with Stramelle, it was different. I tried to remedy myself. "I mean, for so young a Five, you know an awful lot of genetics."

Stramelle looked at me, as though she was considering something. "I know. I have made incredible leaps in genetics for my people. But to what shall my work avail? The destruction of an innocent, sentient species? I can't let that happen." She paused, hesitantly. "You didn't read my note did you?"

"What note?" I was shocked. There was no note. I never got one. But then my memory tingled just a bit. It was that night when I had been up really late, and I had been too tired to even eat. I remembered seeing a piece of paper and then…

Stramelle nodded. "Ok, I don't think you've read it. I disposed of the message in the morning. I couldn't risk any other Five seeing it." No wonder I didn't see it by the time I woke up. Stramelle had taken cautionary measures. "Basically, in the note, I had… offered my services to you. I know that you plan to take over this ship. I have observed you from afar, seeing if you could succeed where I failed. I have thought that you, an Arn would not go through with such a terrible deed, and for awhile I was shocked at the zeal you applied yourself to the cause with. But it dawned on me. You are very brave, Arn. I did not have the courage to do what you are about to. I know no matter what my father says, no matter what the Five government says, I know what they're doing is wrong. So I will help now with whatever plan you have, even if it means opposing my father."

I had resumed working on applying the sealing agent on the sample and had just finished. I was surprised many times in the course of the conversation- a Five on my side! No longer did my cause seem doomed. I might succeed! I might save the Venber! I help up the Venber sample, checked it for a last time, and placed it carefully in the cultivation chamber. "Ok, I'm done. Yes, I'll be honored to work with you Stramelle. But… but… if your father stands in our way, you understand that…"

I hadn't noticed that Stramelle's eyes were red rimmed with sadness. But still, resolutely, she nodded. "I will do whatever it takes, Arn. Let us go over plans."

And thus did I find an enemy who was actually a friend.

Chapter 7- A New Generation 
    
    Afterwards, Stramelle and I parted ways. I had instructed the speaker that fed in to the cultivation chamber to play over and over again the same Galard terms, phrases, and some complex vocabulary. Hopefully, when the Five were fully formed, they would have an adequate knowledge of the language for me or Stramelle to tell them about their situation and what we wanted them to do. It would be fascinating to see their reactions. I mean, I could not imagine at all how it would be like to wake up in some metallic place, be told that you were genetically engineered, and that you're the last hope of your species' survival. And that Stramelle, or at least her species, was responsible for your species' demise. Gee, that would be weird to say the least.
    I reflected on my meeting Stramelle. I was overcome belatedly with confusion. Adlax's own daughter, a revolutionary! From what I knew about the Five, I had perceived the race as a murderous, pillaging one that had no real scientific background. I had stereotyped them as all being that way, not gentle or intellectual creatures at all. But apparently I was wrong. Stramelle obviously did not fit in to the typical Five mold. Yet she was a Five who was almost as, or perhaps just as proficient as me, an Arn, in genetics! And how odd was it for a Five to have so many… emotions. As Adlax had said to me, the Five did not waste much time on introspection and sentimentality. I had wondered at Adlax's bitterness as he said this but now I understood- his own daughter was "suffering" from morals, feelings, and all that other foreign, strangely dangerous stuff too. I smiled grimly. This was strange. I had not heard of many cross-race alliances, especially those between species' that were so put at separate ends on the morality spectrum. But here I was, with the captain's own treasonous daughter, about to resurrect a gradually disappearing race in to a higher state of being. A tiny seed of doubt started to eat away at me. How could I trust her? Like I said, Stramelle was the captain's daughter. She could easily be in a clever ruse to trap me before I could launch my attack. Perhaps she had altered the DNA after I had left the lab and… I shook my head angrily. Stramelle wasn't like that at all! She was obviously different, and it wasn't the Five's way to deal with sneaky plans and all. They were hard and violent, and they didn't stop to think ahead. Anyway, if she knew what I was doing, why didn't she just turn me in to daddy? It just wouldn't make sense for her to come and hand over a potentially deadly weapon against her race unless she was being honest. I sighed and decided to forget all my doubts and just hope that my plan would work out. The plan I had conceived earlier had been thoroughly delayed and altered what with the new elements of much more dangerous Venber and Stramelle's assistance. But the plan was changed for the better. How could it not be better? I mean, I had a powerful Five on my side and at last the Venbers' dangerous stature can effectively be used for their own cause. I hadn't seen Stramelle on the ship before- it was odd because I had spent quite awhile on the ship already. Well, I never really had liked the idea of exploring a Five ship very thoroughly so I didn't really know the ship that well. That led me to believe that there were perhaps more Five than I had accounted for. I had only _seen_ about 5 Five [I laughed a little at that, we Arn have a wonderful sense of humor (jk)]. I reminded myself to ask Stramelle about the rest of the ship's occupants and the extent of weaponry aboard besides the so-called "dangerous bombs" that were supposed to destroy my planet. I finally decided to give myself over to the welcoming lull of sleep and hope that tomorrow, when I met Stramelle in the lab, I would not wake up to the heavy odor of melting flesh.
    Stramelle and I had planned to meet promptly at 0600. I woke up a little late, thankfully not to the smell of deteriorating flesh but to a faulty alarm clock. When I arrived in the unflooded lab Stramelle was already there. She had opened the cultivation hatch and I was shocked to see a magnificent sight- 12 small but powerfully built Venber, defiant and strong, with intelligence glittering in their young eyes. No matter that they were mere infants- age was irrelevant when one was placed in such a difficult position, as I was. I think I had aged perhaps 2 cycles on my sojourn on the ship. I did not worry much about characteristic short attention spans of the young, at least on the Arn world it was characteristic- the Venber looked patient and understanding, as I had expected them to look like. By the almost stricken looks in their eyes, I could tell that the Venber had already been briefed on their dire situation in.
    "Hello," I said tentatively in Galard to the Venber. These were a new generation of Venber, smarter, impervious to heat, and more defiant than their predecessors. Each Venber quietly responded. One of the Venber, however, stayed silent and stood slightly forward with his lips pursed angrily. I looked curiously at Stramelle and she shrugged her shoulders. She was as confused as I was. I guess the Venber had already formed a hierarchy of some sort. The head Venber paused, looking at me to Stramelle, then began quietly but with emotion. "As I understand it," he articulated in flawless Galard, "we are genetic experiments that you Arn created solely for the purpose of satisfying your ego as a wonderful rescuer, some kind of savior or something."
    I stared at his wild accusation. How dare he, the… The Venber put up his arm as though to stop me from retorting, an oddly Arn gesture. "Don't give me your crap about it being in our best interests. I don't see how turning us in to something totally unlike the original Venber is exactly in our best interests."
    Stramelle interjected angrily, "Shut up you Venber! We're trying to save your species and that's the kind of thanks we get? This is so not the time us to argue over some identity crisis! You should be at least a little grateful that this little Arn is trying to 'satisfying his ego' or else you wouldn't even be here whining about how you're even alive!"
    The lead Venber sneered contemptuously. I was starting to wish that I had not made the Venber quite so aggressive. What was this guy's problem? The rest of the Venber stayed respectfully back and seemed docile enough. "Oh, Stramelle, you Five- it's your race's fault in the first place that this genetic mishap had to occur. I think it's just a little too late for you to start moralizing about how grateful we should be to you or the Arn."
    Stramelle turned a deep shade of blue and looked down ashamedly at the floor. I guess at the sight of this brave creature, ashamed because of what some pompous ingrate thought of her as just made me feel sick.
    "You know what!" I exploded, not at all like my calm normal self. "We shouldn't get this from you! We own you. Without us you wouldn't even be here. And don't you dare call Stramelle a Five! She isn't like the rest of them, OK! So I don't care what you do after I save you and the rest of you stinking race's asses, I just don't want you anywhere near me!"
    I was seeing red and ready to lash out at anyone who was within a convenient distance. I felt a hand on my shoulder, jerked as though I was about to whack it, and then I relaxed as I realized it was Stramelle. I felt the anger slowly just ebb away, and I began to regret my harsh words. The Venber stood silent, pensive, biting his lower lip as though deep in thought.
    "Look," I said," I'm sorry about what I said to you… it's just that…" I stared steadily in to the Venber's eyes. He looked away first. "You just don't know how much we've sacrificed for you. I mean Stramelle, she went against the whole Five culture, against her own father to help you! Don't you appreciate that at least?" The rest of the Venber had been silent for the most part but one by one, they each expressed their gratitude. "Thank you," they murmured quietly. I had a feeling that they were just followers, that they did not really share their leader's sentiment, and that they only accepted him as leader because he was so utterly dominant, so confident of himself. The Venber alone did not express his thanks. "That doesn't give you the right to… disfigure my race permanently! You have destroyed our identity, the very being of a Venber! I have this craving for the cold but I don't need it. but the craving alone makes me want to die." The creature paused, no longer angry but just… sad. Almost reminiscent for something he never could hope to have.
    "I… feel the icy winds blow over me that I've never experienced. I want to touch the _xeryx_, the ice floes, but I can't. I can't live without the cold Arn." I didn't understand. I had made sure that the Venber were completely independent from the cold. At least physically…
    "Myqui," Stramelle murmured softly. "Their physical bodies don't need the cold… but their souls long for it." Only then did I truly understand. I looked from Venber to Venber. They each nodded their agreement. The Venber had a natural instinct for the cold, and somehow, through thousands of years of evolution, their bodies had come to love the cold, what with all its barren beauty and blinding drifts. I took in a deep breath. I was about to make a promise I wasn't certain I could keep. But it was necessary that I had the Venbers' cooperation at least in the short run. The 48 hours were very quickly about to expire. "OK, Venber, I have a proposal to make for you," I said
    Stramelle looked shocked. What is it? she mouthed. I just shook my head and kept on talking. "There is a possibility that I will be able to return you to your home planet. I doubt that now the Five are resorting to genetically creating the Venber that they will bother searching your planet any further. Is this an acceptable plan for you? If I do this for you, will you fight with us to take over this ship?"
    All the Venber looked excited at the prospect of returning to a home that only their souls remembered. "Yes, I will help," spoke up a Venber. "My name is Zephyr and I pledge to help you as long as we can return home." Soon, all the Venber echoed Zephyr's pledge, except for the leader Venber. He hesitated slightly. He seemed slightly brighter than the others and realized that there was probably no way to escape the ship with a pod, or else I probably would have done it. And this ship was powered solely with Venber. I think he was interested in my deal despite all he knew, or at least suspected. I like to think that it was hope that pushed him over across the edge of skepticism. "I too, Johadrin, agree to help these creatures to take over this ship. I will do it with pleasure, knowing that it will be a severe loss for the enemies of my race and all involved with them. I pledge to help you Arn and you Stramelle as long as I can be expected to help."
    Stramelle's face broke out in to a broad smile. "Thank you," she said with every ounce of genuine appreciation I could ever imagine. "You don't know how much this means to me. I understand why you're angry and everything, and you have every right to be, but I am so glad that you finally are trusting me!" Johadrin smiled somewhat grimly, but I dismissed it in my excitement.
    I decided to finally outline my plan for the destruction of the Five aboard the ship. "OK, so you Venber, this is what I want you guys to do…"
    **Chapter 8- The Fall of the Five
    **It was the moment of truth- Stramelle and I had thoroughly prepped the Venber with our plan and it was now solely up to me to start it out with a bang.
    Stramelle had told me about the captain's quarters and about all the other Five- it turned out that there really were only 6 other Five besides Stramelle. She had simply been reclusive after her "failure"- apparently she could not face her father with the shame of having failed on a mission so important to him. I started to worry about her- if it really came down to killing Adlax I wasn't sure she could do it. I know I probably couldn't watch my father or mother being struck down just because they were far too indoctrinated in their culture to know right from wrong. But I couldn't think of that. I hurried to the captain's quarters and knocked tentatively. "Captain Adlax?" I asked softly. No response. I knocked again. "Captain, sir?" I asked louder. I heard the sound of a heavy form tumbling on to the ground. It was early in the morning and I had just woke him up. Hopefully he wouldn't be too mad…
    "Myquifygacon," Adlax leered. "Are you done with your little, uh, project?" I nodded humbly and said yes.
    "Do you wish to see them sir?" I asked, still in the guise of the obedient little Arn child.
    Adlax practically rubbed all four palms together in eager anticipation. "Of course! Lead the way little Arn!"
    Meanwhile, Stramelle was distracting the rest of the Five with a _bacush_ game. She claimed to be a great champion, and the egotisitical Five of course could not handle that the slight female was better than them at such a _male-_ driven game. Stramelle had told me that in all actuality, she was very skilled at the game and that she could probably beat them all with her eyes closed. "Of course though, to give you the most time, I'll make it last longer before letting them submit to me, the _bacush_ queen!" she had said with glee. But with a serious afterthought she added quietly, "Don't hurt him, though unless you absolutely have to… just restrain him, OK?" I promised that I would do minimum damage to her father.
    I led the Five to the lab. "After you sir," I said. Adlax fairly well skipped in to the room… only to find himself surrounded by Venber.
    "What is this?" he cried in outrage. "What are you doing? Why aren't these Venber melting or in their storage chambers?"
    I laughed mirthlessly. "You're about to be taught a lesson in galactic morals."
    "Guards!!!" Adlax began to scream. With a nod of my head, the Venber hustled the reluctant Five in to the sound proof cultivation chamber, shut the hatch and secured it tightly. 3 of the Venber remained to guard the unhappy captain. None of the Five could hear the angry protests of their captain trapped in the chamber.

We arrived in the designated area where Stramelle was still playing a game of _bacush._ She waved casually at us. "Hi Myquifygacon! Hi new-and-improved Venber!" 

The Five pushed away from the table and started up, all five arms out front and ready to attack. They grinned in anticipation of a good fight. "Well, you Venber aren't melting huh? I told the captain something like this was gonna happen but did he listen? Noooo… Well, then, bring it on!"

Johadrin and the rest of the Venber faced the Five in an ominous stand off. Though the Venber outnumbered the Five about 2 to 1, the Five had been professionally trained and knew how to fight. The Venber had only be taught with Stramelle's limited military knowledge. They did know a little about strategies and began to move slightly around the table to surround the Five. All of a sudden, the loud- mouthed Five executed a huge two handed punch through a Venber's shaggy body. Zephyr grunted and retaliated by elbowing the Five in to his eyes and deftly tripped him while the Five was distracted with his temporary blindness. Zephyr then body slammed the poor Five and he was down for the count. Suddenly fights exploded between Venber and Five, and blood was mingling between the enemies. Punches flew and kicks wind-milled seemingly at random.

I spied one of the Five, one who I was actually familiar with, who ran to the ship's bridge- probably to deploy the bombs. That Five had laughed and mocked me more than any of the other Five. I gritted my teeth. It was time for revenge. I knew I was being foolish- I was tiny in comparison with the huge creature that was the Five. But I didn't want my planet to get hurt in this attack- my planet was just an innocent bystander, unknowing collateral in this deadly game. I yelled to the Venber to follow me after they were done with the Five. I was pretty sure that the Five's advantage of knowing more would eventually collapse under the weight of being outnumbered. I ran after the Five, leaving the din of cries and grunts behind me. I heard heavy steps behind me, and saw Stramelle coming after me. "You'll need me," she panted heavily. I nodded in agreement- having a young female Five and a weak Arn against one fully trained grown male Five might be a more equal fight. We arrived on the bridge to find the Five just sending off the bombs- I was shocked to read that they were _chemical _bombs- not just explosives, but bombs releasing a potentially deadly gas. 

I wind-milled my arms against the strong Five back. "Stop it!" I screamed. This wasn't happening, it couldn't be happening, they _had_ to be explosives, that way they couldn't do much damage and then… "Just stop it, you stupid Five!" The Five, who was named Jogeahi, turned around and flicked me off his back like some annoying little gnat. Stramelle caught up and began to help me ineffectively whack at him. Jogeahi grinned hideously as he pressed the final command that would send off the bombs to their lonely target- my planet that was waiting unaware… "Argh!" I yelled in mindless rage and fear and anger at myself, at my stupidity, at how I so easily deluded myself in to thinking that my planet was safe. I mercilessly began hitting at the Five's many arms, grabbing a lever and ripping it off with a strength I had never known I had possessed. Jogeahi easily pushed me off again and pummeled me in to the ground with the base of his foot. "Is that the best you can do, Arn?" he said derisively. "I would have expected better from someone who had so much courage… _oof_" Stramelle suddenly launched herself on to the back of my assailant, and he was done flat on his stomach, not moving. 

"Thanks," I managed, wheezing. And turned on to my vulnerable enemy, with my make shift weapon. I used the lever to hit and hit and hit again the exposed back of the Five. Again and again I struck until I felt blood begin to fly in to my red rimmed, barely seeing eyes. Stramelle finally managed to pull me off the Five that I had… that I had killed in my rage. I felt my cheek get struck by the strong palm of Stramelle. "Snap out of it!" she screamed, tears streaming down her face. "Myqui! What were you doing?! Myqui?" I shook my head and finally looked down at what I had done. I saw a prostrate body of Jogeahi, someone I had thought I hated enough to kill without feeling guilty, and knew I was wrong. There was a gaping whole right through his back until I could see the silvery floor on which he lay. I had done this with a blunt ended lever. My murderous passion gave me a frightening strength, strength I never wanted to use again. I threw away my gore- stained weapon and began to sob with Stramelle. She drew me in to her arms, regardless of my bloody frame, and we both cried, sobbed, for we had both seen cold-blooded murder, I had committed it and she had watched me do it without doing anything until it was too late. We both just cried for a long time before the rest of the Venber finally arrived on the bridge, all bloody and tired. They looked curiously at the dead body of Jogeahi, and questioningly looked at me and Stramelle. They didn't say anything and neither did we. They quietly left and Stramelle gently let me go, stared at me for awhile and wiped her tears away. "Don't think too much of what you did, Myqui," she said and with that she left me alone with blood still on my hands and the corpse in plain sight.

It was a long time before we both recovered. I guess it was shocking for Stramelle to have seen someone so brutally murdered, and I was just shocked with myself for having the capacity to commit such a heinous deed. For a long time I couldn't talk with anyone, and I was contemplating what kind of Arn I was. Murder was a terrible crime on my planet, an almost unheard thing. See, my society was based on the joys of life and so to commit a murder was the most distressing crime one could conceive. My parents- they would be shocked. Sweet little Myqui murder? And in such a violent way? No, no. maybe some other disturbed Arn, but not our sweet little Myqui. I began to cry again. My family. All dead. At least they would be pretty soon. I had asked Stramelle about the bombs after all the Five had been safely locked up in to the storage chambers. She could not look at me the same way after the incident but we still talked. She did not like to think about her father too much and rarely visited him except during times when she felt particularly guilty.

"What does that gas do?" I had said Stramelle, not sure I wanted to know the answer. She blanched and replied softly, "It's… it's a _cyrhirogenous_ agent, a gas that scientists had synthesized on my home planet in the case that we met some opposition… it basically… it covers the atmosphere, blocking out the sun, effectively destroying all life that is solar reliant." Everything needs sunlight, I thought. My people… they would all be gone… I sobbed again, for the umpteenth time in a matter of hours.
    
    Now I looked out the window. I saw my beautiful home planet, with its sky now scorched with the poisonous gas that would gradually strangle all existence from the face of it. I could not return. I would never ever be able to go back. Even if Arnia wasn't doomed, I still wouldn't want to return to my planet knowing that I had done such a grievous cowardly act. And now I was also responsible for the veritable death of my planet. 

Chapter 9- A New World 

The Venber were actually rather brilliant. They had developed a fuel system for the Five ship in a matter of weeks after their creation. They had managed to decompose the Five frozen foods in to its atomic state and then created a fission power source by splitting the atoms in a contained environment. I had pulled out of my funk temporarily to create more Venber that would assist in the conversion of the Five ship from Venber energy to fission power. We even released the other Five and made them help us. Adlax and Stramelle's reunion was stony to say the least, but gradually, with her brilliance, I was sure that She could show her father why it had to be so. The remaining four Five worked quietly, glumly, and without hope. They too could never return home or else all would be lost- the Five would undoubtedly tell of the Venbers' survival although they would no longer be potential batteries. The Five would probably want to annihilate the creatures anyway just for depriving their so-called superior race of a fantastic energy source- an energy source that had always meant death to the Venber until now. And the fission technology with which the Five would have their ship powered with would obviously be duplicated, and thus unleash the scourge that is the Five once more across the galaxy. 

We were now heading to Venbea where we hoped to repopulate the planet at first artificially and then gradually naturally with the new Venber reproducing themselves. For them, this was a fantastic journey, a story that would go down in history books. The revival of a species'- yet it was at a terrible cost. But was it worth it? I asked Johari later and he just grimly said he did not know yet. "Only after I see my own planet can I say," he said. And I knew that he honestly did not think the cost of losing one's identity was worth one's survival.

It had turned out that everyone had a price to pay. It had been about 8 weeks since I first got captured. 8 weeks since I began on my journey of discovery, my journey of learning of the evil that lurks in the hearts of the Five… and in my own. I had lost all my innocence, all my naivete. I had murdered another creature. I had gained my wisdom at a terrible price. 

Stramelle, she had preserved her moral values at a cost too. She had lost her people… her own father, to the once foreign thing called morals. I don't know if I was her that I would think it would be worth it. 'Stramelle' back on the Five planet would probably become a curse word if news ever got back to the Five planet. But I'm sure that wasn't what pained her most. She too, could never return to her planet. Ever. Hers wasn't a matter of choice, like mine was, but she risked being executed if she even showed her face back "home".
    
    So, since both of us could not go to our respective homes, we decided to return to Venbea with the rest of the Venber. We would be misfits, aliens on an adopted planet. It would be a hard life, coping with all the cold and everything, but the Venber promised to build us heated homes with the fission power. I was sure that the Venber would develop a fantastic new culture and become incredibly technologically advanced before long. Their brilliance constantly surprised me and their versatile minds could solve unorthodox problems in very creative ways. The rest of the Five would come with us to Venbea under heavy guard until they saw the way, until they fully understood. I hoped that they would soon be able to drop all the foolish thoughts of the Five and see things in all its clarity as they truly were.
    We arrived on Venbea within a month of the completion of the energy conversion. The world was… it was so many things. It was cold, sure, but I could handle it. But it was also a lonely looking place, almost desolate with its emptiness. Have you ever thought that a place could speak to you? I never really thought about it until then. But Venbea spoke to me, in its magnificent white garb that stretched for an eternity, it spoke of hope, not hopelessness, of life, despite its barrenness. It sang to me words I had never known but could suddenly understand. I was overcome with déjà vu, it was so like my dream, the white expanses and now the Venber here. Venbea. It was so many things, as I had said it was. But most of all is was… it was beautiful. The sky rained down snow as though it was manna from the heavens.
    I saw all the Venber play in the snow like children on a playground. I saw Stramelle open her mouth to capture the sweet snowflakes that drifted down from the skies. I even saw Adlax smile, a genuine smile with his cavernous mouth, at the frolicking Venber. I noticed one of the Venber was missing. I looked around finally to see Johadrin. Johadrin was not smiling. He was not even laughing. He was… crying. I saw his tears stream down gently, freezing almost as soon as they were expelled from his eyes. What were these tears of? I thought. Joy? Sadness? I could not tell.
    "Johadrin," I said quietly. "What do you think of your home?"
    Now his face cracked open in to a smile, the largest smile I had ever seen, and I knew. "I… it's beautiful." His tears still ran as he said this and I smiled. "It's all I have ever dreamed… and more. The snow-" he lifted a handful and let it go through his fingers. "The skies-" he pointed up and suddenly the sky was a clear blue, with only a little bit of snow crumbling down besides us. "Everything. Thank you Myquifygacon. Thank you for saving me… and bringing me to my planet."
    I had to ask him one more question. I just had to know one more thing. "So," I said, after a silence of basking in the ethereal beauty of Venbea. "Now- what do you think? Was it worth it? All the pain of having lost your identity as a species? Was it worth losing all that for this?" I waved my arms around me, an all-encompassing gesture.
    "I did not think it would be," Johadrin replied. "But now… but now I know better. It is worth it, a thousand times over. It is worth it. It is worth coming home."
    A stab of pain swept through me then. My home. I could never have a homecoming as Johadrin and his people were having. I was cursed to live on this beautiful piece of land never to see my marred planet that I still called home. I abruptly said goodbye and hurried off to sob again for those I would never be able to see again.
    _5 cycles later-
    _ Though I knew that I could never go back, see my friends or family again, I was not permanently depressed. (And besides, the Venber were now my family. It was odd to see the large creatures follow me, a tiny Arn in comparison, like little adoring puppies.) I had done my fair share of grieving and had felt guilty for so long that it became a familiar friend instead of a thing of despair to me. The emotions reminded me that I was still an Arn, though separated from my world, my world that may already be doomed, I was an Arn still, and forever would be. No one could take that away from me, nothing could, not even my becoming a murderer in a blood wrath so intense that it scares me just thinking about it.
    Adlax had died during the wintry dawn of the spring. I accompanied Stramelle with her husband to an icy clearing where his body lay. The Five had learned the beauty of life, of goodness, and had stayed on the planet quite willingly. The two races, Five and Venber, now lived in perfect harmony on this planet though once they had been enemies. Stramelle had married a Five who was particularly quick in realizing his previous transgression. She was now expecting twins and would give birth fairly soon. She was extremely distraught at the thought that her father would never see his grandchildren. Stramelle murmured a few words to the body and I respectfully closed my eyes and wished for peace for Adlax in whatever world he was in now. He had converted too, as all the Five had, and had spent his last cycles playing with the Venber children. Adlax had loved children dearly. It was an amazing transformation- one could never realize that the playful grandfather figure had once been a ruthless, malignant creature. I guess it showed the power of indoctrination- once you're taught to be cruel for birth, it can corrupt even the best creatures. But luckily, Adlax's good side had won out in the end. The short ceremony ended with Stramelle throwing some snow over the body, and she and her husband walked quietly away. I suspected they needed time together- her husband had been very close with Adlax in his last cycles- so I let them be and walked back. Night was falling and I felt that I had something to do.
    I would occasionally still look out to the sky from my makeshift _clerix_, searching for my planet, for the planet I still considered as home after all this time, even though I knew nothing of astronomy. So that's what I did that night. The night was so clear, I felt I could see billions of light years through to the other side of the universe. I liked to think that one of the celestial bodies up there, one of the billions of twinkling pinpoints was still thriving. I know it seems impossible, but lately I've had a feeling that… that Arnia is not slowly dying as I had once feared. That it was not destroyed in the senseless chemical bombing. I have a feeling that… my planet will survive, the Arn will continue to live, and all will be well. Because when one is looking up in to the stars, when one is staring up in to that heavenly expanse, all one can think of is… hope.
    **Epilogue- [from the point of view of Astrani]
    **There. There is the story of my people. The story of a very special Arn and a unique, amazing Five. But, unfortunately, the harassment of our people has not ended there. Not at all. The fact is that another alien species has mounted an attack on our planet. At first we did not realize. Apparently, some of the fossils of the old Venber were discovered and then used. Then the creatures, our new nemesis, discovered our colony of "super" Venber. The old Venber had a physiology that did not allow the parasites to infest them. But our genetically altered bodies are now vulnerable to their attack. We know this how, you might ask? Our echolocation system is extremely sophisticated. We can go so far as see within one's body, and some of us had noticed an odd aberration apparent in one of our elders' heads. The aberration that was a Yeerk. Yet we could not do anything about it. We are sworn to obey him, despite his obvious defect, and he orders the mass infestation of our people. There apparently is a Pool ship above us with a great amount of Yeerks. I believe that they are desperate, as though on the run. If we do not obey… the elder/parasite threatens to blow up our planet. We can not do anything! Our helplessness is terribly frustrating. We do not produce weapons, we are peaceful creatures, and the Arn on our planet refuse to create some creatures for the mere purpose to be used as genetic weapons. So we obey entirely. But I alone, I have come in search of your help. I traveled across the galaxy in a small ship, despite the risks, in search of some willing fighters. I understand that you defeated the Yeerks that were attacking the planet called Earth. I wish you to do the same for Venbea. So… please. Time grows short and before long you may face my people who are not truly people. So I implore of you to come now, now that you have heard my story and you must answer me this, you Andalite saviors of the galaxy. Will you come? Will you come and save my people as you have saved so many others?
    A/N: There, done! OK, I think the end was kind of choppy/rushed but I was starting to get lazy. I'll need to edit it again, if I made some plot or scientific errors, so point em out OK! (I know nothing about echolocation, only a lil bit about genetics from bio) That took awhile, I'm definitely sticking to monologues and short stories after this. Gee, I'm starting to think that sucked ass! I mean that hope thing, goodness I end everything like that. What'd you guys think? Ahh, I need suggestions to improve that thing OK!


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